INTERVIEW: Festival Director ELAD LAOR on the Jerusalem Film Workshop
I had the the opportunity to talk to Elad Laor, festival director of the Jerusalem Film Workshop, a six-week program for creative filmmakers aged 19-27, seeking an opportunity to gain professional skills and tell their own special story of Jerusalem.
Supported by Onward Israel, the Jerusalem Film Workshop offers participants comprehensive knowledge of film production and the opportunity to expand their professional network, while living in Jerusalem and traveling round Israel.
Even though I couldn’t meet Laor in person, we managed to exchange e-mails, in which he told me quite a bit about his background as a documentary filmmaker, and his role as the director of such an ambitious film workshop.
Tell me a little bit about your background as a filmmaker.
I am director of film projects and a documentary filmmaker. I founded a video therapy organization for at-risk youth, and directed projects connecting international filmmakers with Israeli communities. I have created documentaries in Ethiopia, Costa Rica and Thailand. The latter (“Cluster”, with Hadar Reichman) has won an international film competition in summer 2017. I am currently developing a screenplay funded by an Israeli film fund.
How did the Jerusalem Film Workshop start?
It started with the vision of Gal Greenspan and Roi Kurland, founders and CEO’s of GREEN Productions, in the year 2014. The project aimed to connect international young filmmakers to Israel, through their own passion and dreams of becoming more proficient with film. Founding such an elaborate project out of nothing was a very challenging mission. However, with the leadership of Gal Greenspan, the workshop kept growing and evolving year after year. Now we can proudly say it is a very well established and esteemed program.
Were you called to be a part of it, or were you part of the founding of the Festival?
I am very new to the JFW, I joined the team in April 2018.
Why did you choose to focus on documentary filmmaking?
There is nothing like meeting a place through a documentary “lens”. Documentary film, rather than the narrative genre, makes you open your eyes to the actual people who live in the place you’re working on. It makes you ask questions about the true nature of the culture you’re visiting, about your own personal connection to it. Through this unique documentary perspective, the bond you form with the place and the people you choose to portray, is stronger, much more real, and makes the experience bilateral – as the film you leave behind stays as a lifelong gift to the people you put on your film.
What constitutes your day-to-day work for the Festival?
Directing all the aspects of the program.
What are the challenges specific to organising a film workshop in Jerusalem?
Probably the biggest challenge is the fact that there is SO MANY fascinating things to meet in Jerusalem, so many one-of-a-kind stories everywhere you turn. Therefore, this year we have decided to focus on one street only, the diverse Hanevi’im (Prophets) street, to create one theme and setting for the project.
In general terms, what are criteria for selecting the participants?
We are looking for people who have a true passion for filmmaking, people who are at professional level at their field (directing\producing\cinematography\editing), and with that – people who are team players, and are able to create a fun and prolific working atmosphere with 19 other young and talented filmmakers from all around the world.
Where do you see the Festival in the next five or ten years? How would you like it to change and/or evolve?
I believe the JFW will keep evolving its ways of producing the most engaging final product, along with creating a once in a lifetime experience, both extremely fun and highly developing professionally, for all of its participants. I believe that over the years the workshop’s reputation will continue to grow, its films will reach wider audiences around the world, and we’ll be able to facilitate even a higher number of participants each year.
